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Calling Scottish Cooks - traditional haggis?

AJB Temple

AJB Temple

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We've been asked to cater for a Burns supper (25th January) using a traditional recipe for haggis that they will provide. Having had a look on-line it seems to be a pungent business, involving a lot of sheep offal and maybe ox offal as well. I've never cooked Haggis and as far as I recall have only had it once in Scotland (with bagpipes and poem speech) and that was so long ago I can't remember it.

Right now I have no idea where to get sheep's pluck and ox bung from as the butchers here do not handle whole animals (they come in as sides).

The recipes online look dead easy but the thought of the smell pervading the building is not entirely appealing so I might turn it down. Anyone have any experience of Haggis?
 
Yes, I have cooked it from scratch, and it is a bit stinky. Not that it matters (other than the smell side) but I have also valued a couple of haggis factories. Those did hum.

I'm just about to have lunch, but I'll come back in more detail in a bit. Unless someone forstalls me. Oh, and no recipe I've seen includes ox, but it was a peasant dish, so the cooks woulds have used what they had got.
 
Thank you. I was hoping you would respond. An old recipe on line used ox bung mixed with sheep offal, as it reduces the sheepiness apparently. Obviously I have no idea.
 
When I lived in the far north the local butcher had big sign in his window saying “ locally shot haggis “

They were very nice ( and very cheap) we would have one quite frequently in the winter (9) months . Was a tradition up there to fry the leftovers for breakfast next morning.
 
You should get yourself out on the heather for a haggis hunt this generally entails chasing them around the hill in a clockwise direction as mainland haggis have their legs on one side longer than the other to facilitate running around the hills, you then swiftly change direction causing the beasts to turn and promptly fall over. This is in direct contrast to the haggis of Lewis in the Western Isles. A large number of wild haggis still roam the moors and machair of the Western Isles and, despite the Isles of Lewis and Harris having a strict Sabbatarian tradition, the Hebridean Haggis Hunt is one of the few events that takes place on a Sunday across all of the islands – including Lewis and Harris.

The Lewis Haggis is different from the Haggis on the mainland: unlike its mainland relative all its legs are of the same length. Capturing of wild haggis on Lewis is a traditional community event. At dusk, the young men of the villages go out on to the moors to form a wide semi-circle while the elders cover peat creels with heather and turf, just leaving the opening visible. The young men, acting as ‘beaters’, drive the haggis towards the traps.

On perceiving the elders, the haggis panic, seek shelter and mistaking the creels for burrows the haggis are caught, quickly dispatched and passed to the women-folk for skinning. The haggis are then soaked in brine for a couple of days to become tender and ready to cook. (According to an authoritative source, a resident of Lewis, traditionally the haggis skin would be used as a sporran, but with the decline in kilt wearing over the years the skins are now often discarded.)
 
And this is what passes for humour in Scotland? It's worse than Germany and that's saying something.:censored:
 
As someone else with the proper spelling of the name - I have to support Alasdair - I have always trapped or shot haggis during the season... ;)

why do you need to cook it from scratch - can you not just buy in one of the many beautifully made ones and cook it (doesn't give the smell issues) and it is very tasty...

Alasdair
 
akirk said:
why do you need to cook it from scratch - can you not just buy in one of the many beautifully made ones and cook it (doesn't give the smell issues) and it is very tasty...
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As I said at the outset: We've been asked to cater for a Burns supper (25th January) using a traditional recipe for haggis that they will provide.

I expect being canny Scots they might know that you can buy Haggis made in a factory. :ROFLMAO: For reasons best known to themselves they want a different thing and are happy to pay for it.
 
AndyP said:
Served with neeps and tatties I hope.
Long time since I have had the pleasure.
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Spec so. I don't care really - it's their menu. They are also supplying a bag-pipeistess, of the female persuasion apparently. Still haven't agreed yet though pending knowing what is in the recipe as buying the insides of sheeps is not as easy as you might think.
 
This is true. However, my belief is they only pipe the haggis in. This should be really quick as the oven is about 15 feet from where they eat :cool:

And - shock news - it seems the haggis might not even be Scottish! It was apparently known in England for at least 500 years and appears in English Huswife (1660) where someone called Gervase Markham describes a “Haggas or Haggus” as a bag with finely chopped sheep's calf and pig offal. Maybe this means the bagpipes can be eschewed.
 
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OK. Right, the recipe I have used is scribbled down in a notebook, and is probably from The Scots Kitchen (McNeill), or, would you believe it, Fergus Henderson. With alterations. You’ll certainly have the latter if not the former. In my mind the important thing is to get the spicing right. Principally mace, black pepper and cayenne. McSweens is (to me) too bland. The best ones I have had commercially (and you cannot believe the number of St Andrew’s and Burns’ Nights I have been to) are from Crombies’ on Broughton Street.

I know you will be working to a supplied recipe, but if you are unfamiliar with it, it might be an idea to try maybe the Crombies’ one. They do mail order, but I can always buy one and send it to you.

Inclusion of beef: for my preference it should be entirely sheep, and in a sheep’s stomach. But I know some use beef bung (bigger) and beef scraps in the stock. Beef suet rather than mutton suet too. Ox liver in the filling (frequently used commercially) is an abomination before the Lord. But again if you are using a recipe this may be irrelevant.

But your real problem is the pluck. Now the last time I did haggis I got it from a, well, acquaintance. Hobby farm just on the other side of the border. Slaughtered the beast on his own land, gave me the pluck, and a leg. Still had grass on them. I have also had success in small market towns in the Borders, as long as you give them a bit of notice. Not of much use to you.

However, practically:

Try halal or Chinese (northern) butchers. Even if you can’t get them as a full piece you might be able to get the constituent parts.

Small local abattoir. You may have to buy the whole sheep.

I could have an ask around and see up here. It would be have to be frozen (for both our sakes) to be transported. No guarantees.

Totally off the wall suggestion by my partner over lunch – medical supplier – frequently used for students’ dissection classes. And medical stuff (fresh and frozen, not preserved) is food quality. Even though they say it isn’t. In Lobscouse and Spotted Dog they used a medical supplier for ‘prime millers’ (rats) for a cooking experiment. If you are charging for it though…

Yeah, and the smell. Well, the only thing worse is tripe. Hangs about for ages.

Oh, and last thing, these days I cook haggises wrapped in foil in a low oven. A burst haggis is a miserable sight.

Or you could just lie, and tell them you’d done it to their recipe, and use what is to hand. (I didn’t say that, it was an evil tomte on my shoulder).

A lot of bilge there, but happy to help if necessary.
 
Thanks. This is super helpful. I appreciate it. Indeed I do have Fergus. But not McNeil, but I can remedy that I expect.

Further info sheds light. They are a historical society of academics / broadcasters and have sent me a historical recipe pair researched by Jane Levi that dates back to around 1833 and is attributed to Meg Dodds. They are a bit ignorant of the cooking and prep aspects and the recipe pair is not detailed enough to cook from what is written so I will have to improvise, which means doing a trial at leas once or twice. It uses peasant ingredients as you suggested, but the cost of getting my hands on these is expensive as I have to get them from Smithfield probably or maybe buy a whole sheep from the local (ish) slaughterhouse. The actual offal / sheep will be cheap but the labour is not as have to go to market at 5am if it is London. They want to document the whole thing for a video / TV series which will be £££.

On the upside, we can do all of the prep a few days in advance and keep them in the chiller. They are fine with using caul instead of stomachs if necessary. We can get caul very easily. Sheep tripe is an issue it appears.

Thanks Richard. Helpful suggestion really in normal circumstances, but this is about authenticity as far as is practicable. It's a TV production company paying for this and so cost within reason is not an issue. I may well get some as you suggest in advance to educate my palate. I've taken the risk and accepted it as the TV aspect is intriguing and I expect we will be quite quiet in January after NY.

They also want to hire a pianist, which is interesting as this may be a perfect thing for one of my piano students. Funny how life serves up random little sips of interest and opportunity.
 
McSween's or MacSween's. Can't go wrong. Very tasty, but mainly oatmeal. I eat it once a year. Would probably eat it more often, but my wife is American, and they are generally averse to offal.
 
We used to make a dish with the sheep's stomach that looked sort of like haggis in shetland. The stomachs or puddings as we called them had to be scrubbed clean and possibly soaked in salt, I'd need to ask my father how they were prepared. The puddings honked I remember that much. I think they were dealing with some sheep last week so all the puddings etc were probably dumped or you might have been able to get some down.
 
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One thing to note is that the popular haggis suppliers up here, such as MacLeod’s, package it in inert plastic wrap, rather like black pudding.

The reason for this, as far as I know, is that the traditional ‘sheep’s stomach’ stinks and is revolting.

About seven years ago, I slaughtered seven Hebridean hoggs for an old dear on the other side of the valley. She wanted to make proper haggis from one. Instructed by an even older dear somewhere else, we simmered the pluck - lungs (lites), heart and liver - in a big pan, with the trachea hanging over the side, to ‘expel the bad’. Also referred to as bronchial mucus, it slithered in fits and starts, and greeny-brown strings, into a handy bowl by the stove.

Having seen this, and stifling the urge to retch, I shoo-ed the flies away and had a rummage in the pile of guts by the back door, watched keenly by a Border Collie plastered in red gore. Now, in a previous life I was a vet, so I knew that sheep have four stomachs (technically, one stomach with four chambers), so I wasn’t sure which one to fetch, so went by elimination:

1. Rumen - huge, far bigger than a haggis.
2. Reticulum - distinctive, net-like lining, not seen on a haggis.
3. Omasum - again, distinctive lining, ditto.
4. Abomasum - haggis-sized, much like a human stomach.

I went with number 4. We followed the recipe, minced up the pluck, oatmeal, etc., and stuffed it all into an abomasum. Boiled it.

It stank out the poor woman’s house for days. Every time I saw her over the next week, her house, and particularly kitchen, smelled like a brewer’s fart. Eating the stuff reminded me of visits to the knacker’s yard on a busy, hot day.

So, I recommend you get as fresh a pluck as possible (I’d be surprised if you couldn’t get a fresh pluck from the local abattoir), trim out the horrors (trachea, bronchi, pericardium, gall bladder, etc.) and use an ox bung kit and instructions from Weschenfelder.

Leave the genuine recipe to days gone by, when they must have had stronger stomachs.

Once cooked, it keeps well, and you can freeze it if need be. I serve it with neeps and tatties, and have a decent brown sauce on the table. It goes really well with it.
 
That sounds daunting. And gruesome. The 4 stomachs is news to me, though I should have expected it. I do have an outdoor kitchen and portable prep sink so this might be a job for the outside, even in January. I'm not sure that the company in question realise what is involved here. Thanks for reminding me about Weschenfelder. I get my sausage casings from them online but it didn't occur to me to get haggis wrap! Turns out they do 2 beef caps for £6 and that is enough for 3 kg of haggis. I'm not sure how many haggi :) will be required or how many I will screw up before getting a pretty one :ROFLMAO:

As regards visuals what we appear to end up with is 3 unedifying piles of mush: offal out of the bag is basically offal mince, mashed swede and pretty much rough mashed potatoes. This is going to be a beige affair with bagpipes and a lot of whisky I suspect. Oh and kilts. And presumably knives in socks.
 
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My father’s golf club had an annual Burn’s night complete with piper. I’ve no idea of the provenance of the haggis they served up but I always enjoyed it as I did the ones that were available from sainsbury’s which I see now also come from Sweeney’s.
Reading the above though is , almost, enough to put me off wanting to ever eat them again. I will of course as I do tripe, andouillette and all manner of other offal.
 
I'm glad I'm not Scottish, couldn't eat the disgusting stuff to save my life. :ROFLMAO:
 
Yes, Mistress Dods (a pseudonym) is a bit vague. But then many of the recipes of that time are. ‘Strew a bundle of sweet herbs’ &c. But as I said before it is essentially a peasant dish, and precise quantities are not essential.

I had a search of books on my Kindle last night, and the following popped up. Spons’ Book of Household Management, 1894. It might interest you. Apologies for lack of paragraphs, but this is how it was transcribed:

Haggis.—The outer covering of this is made from the stomach or paunch of a sheep, which requires great care in the cleansing. It must be well washed, and then be allowed to soak for several hours in salt and water; after this, turn it inside out, put it into boiling water to scald, scrape it well, and then put it into a large basin of cold water to remain till wanted. Care must be taken in scraping that no thin places are left, or they will burst in the boiling. Take a sheep’s pluck, clean it well, piercing the liver and heart in several places to let out the blood. Boil the liver and lights for 1½ hour, putting them into fresh water after they have boiled for ¼ hour, and adding the remainder of the pluck to boil with them during the last ½ hour they are on the fire. Take them off and trim away any discoloured parts and the skin. Grate half the liver, and mince all the rest as finely as possible. Chop 2 good-sized onions and 1 lb. suet, and mix with ½ pint oatmeal previously well dried, 2 teaspoonfuls salt, a dash of cayenne, 1 teaspoonful black pepper, and a little grated nutmeg. To this add the juice of a small lemon, and ½ pint good brown gravy. Mix all thoroughly, take the bag or skin from the cold water in which it has lain since preparing, and into it put the mixture. Sew the skin up securely, not forgetting to leave room for it to swell, and at once put it into boiling water, to remain gently simmering for 3 hours after it again comes to the boil. Just at first it must be occasionally pricked with a needle, to let out the air, and prevent it from bursting. Some people tie it in a cloth as well, for fear of this happening; but it ought not to have one, and with attention it will turn out perfectly well without. A haggis is also sometimes made from the stomach or pluck of a calf or lamb, but that of the sheep is most generally used. If lamb is used for this purpose, great care must be taken to sew up any thin places, or possibly holes in the skin, which from being so tender often occur. Occasionally a small quantity of beef, finely minced, is added to the other ingredients, as described for filling the haggis, but it is more generally made without this addition. It must be served directly it is taken off the fire, as hot as possible, with no gravy or sauce of any kind, nor any garnish, as the gravy from the inside flows all over the dish directly the knife is put into it.

Presentation is difficult. But then it wasn’t made to be looked at. Still a whole haggis prior to being opened is a fine sight. I have been at dinners where they bring it in in flaming whisky. Bit pointless to my mind. And swede is not beige.

Oh, and I like mine with Worcestershire sauce. Dunno where I picked that up. But it is not uncommon.

Still (possibly unusual for Scots) we are all agreed - the cooking of from scratch honks. If you have an outdoor kitchen that would be the way to go. In several of the Scandi countries it used to be normal for most cooking to be done in a separate outhouse to avoid smell and condensation affecting the house itself.

An interesting project.
 
AJB Temple said:
This is true. However, my belief is they only pipe the haggis in. This should be really quick as the oven is about 15 feet from where they eat :cool:

And - shock news - it seems the haggis might not even be Scottish! It was apparently known in England for at least 500 years and appears in English Huswife (1660) where someone called Gervase Markham describes a “Haggas or Haggus” as a bag with finely chopped sheep's calf and pig offal. Maybe this means the bagpipes can be eschewed.
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Presumably the Haggi migrated north :)
And you might have to end up with Northumberland pipes instead - not as nice as Scottish ones!
 
It looks like the stomach, being rinsed, brined, inverted and scraped, is prepared much like sausage casings (aka small intestine). You’d end up with just the translucent connective tissue ‘bag’, the serosa. From that, I’d suggest the stomach is just a handy container, rather than an integral part of the overall flavour. So you could skip the genuine article for a prepared casing (ox bung, also used for mortadella) without offending traditionalists. I would avoid the thin collagen casings, as these tend to split.

When you simmer the offal, the smell is fine as long as it’s trimmed, and it firms up nicely. Rather than grate it into mush, you could coarsely chop a proportion for some texture. Or perhaps experiment with different grades of oatmeal. We once gave some haggis/neeps/tatties to some Thai visitors to try. They didn’t eat much of it, sadly. Too bland and no texture was the verdict. Not surprising, given the nature of Thai food.

I may be struck down for this, but the dish is crying out for something like oatcakes and pickled beetroot, for some crunch and sharpness, as served with ‘stovies’ up here.
 
Thanks Gentlemen, this is all super helpful. Tiresias that recipe is just the job. What they have given me is really vague. Guinea - fully agree re the stomach: I actually think the labour is a waste of time, so we will do as below. The recipe's all seem to be very flexible - it's basically a big peasant sausage and a shed load of cheap oats (or breadcrumbs) stops the case from splitting by the looks of it and was a dirt cheap bulking ingredient.

I've had an hour or two discussing this in person with the lady (Sally) setting it all up now. This gives you an idea of the level of knowledge:
Sally, "If I got hold of a big copper stewing cauldron, could we cook it in that for the filming?"
Me: "I only have induction hobs"
Sally "I don't understand"
Me (unvoiced) : "Exactly!".

So, I think what will happen is we will use the outside kitchen, where I can use the fire pit (which normally keeps me warm) if they want flame. We can then pretend to cook it in the cauldron but actually use the big stock pot on the portable induction burner. We will prepare the stomach as prescribed, but in the likelihood that this will be yuk, yuk, yuk and might split, we will have have a dozen beef caps in stock to actually make them in. No liver will be minced. I do have a commercial mincer but I said if they are trying to do this authentically then sticking it all through a noisy electric machine is not the way to go and a big knife is fine.

Weirdly it seems to have turned out to be less hassle to buy a whole sheep than to get fresh pluck from somewhere. £200 - £220 each including butchery, all innards head and blood. Some fresh lamb will be going on the BBQ for the production staff and they are paying for me to have a helper for that purpose. The rest will go in the freezer and Sally gets some as well :whistle:

Neeps is in fact a beigy shade of orange. ;) The best thing to do with it is feed it to the pigs and then eat the pigs. This is what we call vegetarian one step removed.

I agree re some colour and crunch. Right now I do a beetroot and celeriac salad made on the slicer, with grain mustard and honey so will make a bucket of that and probably some piz, shallots & savoy.

Sally asked if I would wear a kilt. "Only if you supply it, pay me a modelling fee and danger money for getting frostbite in January". They would have to get one from somewhere, so I doubt that will happen. 🤞
 
That all sounds like a fun project.

Thinking about it, with a whole pluck you’ll make enough filling for several hagges (3rd declension?!), so could try a variety of casings. Don’t fill any too full, or they’ll bust.
 
Oh, there will be some tales in febuary!

Bod1.
 
AndyP said:
My father’s golf club had an annual Burn’s night complete with piper. I’ve no idea of the provenance of the haggis they served up but I always enjoyed it as I did the ones that were available from sainsbury’s which I see now also come from Sweeney’s.
Reading the above though is , almost, enough to put me off wanting to ever eat them again. I will of course as I do tripe, andouillette and all manner of other offal.
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This all sounds like an offal waste of time.

Sorry...coat
 
This is quite a story!
I have made my own sausages (and need to start doing so again, the French haven't got a clue), but I've never made haggis. I've eaten it only once...
Nothing in the above thread makes me inclined to make it part of my celebrations diet. But good luck with your venture, I shall follow with interest. And the TV thing is a bonus (I was, briefly, on Feedback today).
 
Guineafowl21 said:
That all sounds like a fun project.

Thinking about it, with a whole pluck you’ll make enough filling for several hagges (3rd declension?!), so could try a variety of casings. Don’t fill any too full, or they’ll bust.
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I think the 3rd declension is Haggii - pronounced hag-eee-aye. Proper Scots.

It's actually a stupid project but will be a laugh and pays well. The real bonus is when I am playing at being a chef I never eat the stuff. Hours of prep puts me off, always has. Those of you who know me in person will agree that I could do with eating less.....
 
I knew what Haggis was made from, have eaten it and enjoy it. Hadn't ever really thought about the nuts and bolts of actually turning the less savoury parts of an animal into edible food! I don't think I'll be giving this one a try but fascinating to read about!
 
Going back to bag pipes, over many years exposure to same at close quarters at regimental dinners, I came to the conclusion that the full spread, stonking chanter, Scottish version was sonic warfare against midges. 😎
Now, the uillean pipes? Totally different. Even musical. Indoor friendly. No tinitus after use. Rapid exit....
 
akirk said:
........And you might have to end up with Northumberland pipes instead - not as nice as Scottish ones!
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My sadly deceased friend who set up the Northumbrian Pipes museum in Morpeth would have had a long and protracted "discussion" with you on that subject Alasdair. :ROFLMAO:
 
Lons said:
My sadly deceased friend who set up the Northumbrian Pipes museum in Morpeth would have had a long and protracted "discussion" with you on that subject Alasdair. :ROFLMAO:
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I think that it is genetically impossible for the Northumberland tribes and the Scottish tribes to agree (I actually quite like the Northumberland pipes as they tend to be a bit more musical) but the Scottish pipes are definitely more martial and blood-curdling! :D
 
akirk said:
I think that it is genetically impossible for the Northumberland tribes and the Scottish tribes to agree (I actually quite like the Northumberland pipes as they tend to be a bit more musical) but the Scottish pipes are definitely more martial and blood-curdling! :D
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Yep, that's summed it up nicely. I don't much care for pipes of any kind if I'm honest despite the best efforts of my friend to convert me. What I do like are the instruments themselves just not the racket they produce. :ROFLMAO: The best place for them as I always told him was in the display cabinets they were kept on show.
 
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